Advantages for the Soviet Union

Fewer workers needed on farms - more people to work on developing industry

Increase in production - government could sell more overseas and provide more resources and higher living standards for urban workers

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Economic aims

Aims

Production increase

Larger farms increase efficiency

More workers for developing industry

Failures

Production decreased

Produce prices rose

Living standards fell

Money fell short

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Ideological aims

Aims

Grain would be produced for community benefit

Capitalists would embrace socialism

Failures

Peasants lacked revolutionary spirit

Traditional farming techniques were still used

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Political aims

Aims

Stop grain import

More money to spend on industry development

Failures

Peasants refused to co-operate

Simplistic agricultural view

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Emergency measures

Stalin increased government's power over economy

Rationing was reintroduced

State resumed grain requisitioning in 1928

Grain hoarding could be punished (Soviet Criminal Code - Article 107)

Poor peasants were rewarded for informing on neighbours - they were given land belonging to the kulaks

Policies caused resentment

Party was persuaded by Bukharin to abandon policy

Policy was brought back as Stalin gained more power

Government began requisitioning meat in 1929

Article 61 from Criminal Code was revised - police were given power to send kulaks to the labour camps for up to two years as punishment for 'failure to carry out general state instructions'

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Liquidation of the kulaks

December 1929 saw mass collectivisation

Stalin instructed to 'liquidate the kulaks as a class'

'Dekulakisation' - marked the end of Capitalism and independent countryside farming

Vastly increased collectivisation speed by 1934

Immediate colectivisation was caused by the call to liquidate the kulaks

Poorest peasants were appealed to to lead

Collective farms would control local land and peasants would pool resources

Poor peasants could use kulaks' resources and share in greater harvest

Poor peasants were a minority

Collectivisation was independence and financial loss

Peasants rebelled by destroying grain and livestock

18 million horses and 100 million sheep and goats were destroyed

Kulaks destroyed machinery instead of handing it to Communists

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Twenty-five-thousanders

Stalin initiated a new policy at the start of forced collectivisation

Communists disagreed with plans and refused to implement them

Stalin issued a decree to get around it

25,000 'socially conscious' industrial workers were sent to the countryside

27,000 workers volunteered

Hoped to revolutionise countryside and take part in building socialism

Became known as the 'Twenty-five-thousanders'

Took a two-week course and offered technical help to peasants and instruct them on use of new machinery

Twenty-five-thousanders were really used to enforce dekulakisation

Volunteers were expected to find and confiscate secret supplies of grain, round up and organise kulaks' exile and force remaining peasants into collective farms

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'Dizzy with Success'

First wave of forced collectivisation caused 'untold human suffering'

Majority of kulaks and their families were shot or exiled to Siberia

Those who survived their journey to Siberia were imprisoned in forced labour camps run by secret police

Many died of disease or hunger

Stalin announced that 'Moscow does not believe in tears' and was unmoved

Collectivisation caused chaos in agricultural economy

Wholesale livestock slaughter, destruction of tractors and burning of crops were results of resistance to forced collectivisation

Progress created surge of hostility towards government

Economic and political reality forced Stalin to stop collectivisation in 1930

Stalin defended policy in Pravda article 'Dizzy with Success'

Claimed local officials had been 'overenthusiastic'

Argued that target had been met and programme would be suspended

Never admitted that it had caused problems

By August 1930, many had gone back to their own farms

Only a quarter of Russian farms remained collectivised

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How did Stalin's policies lead to the famine of 19

Food was extremely scarce and a lot of it was also banned

By confiscating grain, problems arose for the entire community because it was such a valued and important crop - if anyone was found in possession of any amount of grain, it would be seized and the person shot or exiled - this meant less farm workers

Seized grain would be sent to cities in order to provide industrialisation resources - but the policy was in such a bad state that the grain went to waste and rotted away

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Consequences of collectivisation

Rural areas

Many peasants were exiled or shot

Remaining peasants endured extreme hardship

Farms could barely cover production costs

Received little reward

Failed to raise production

Urban areas

Goal was to produce more grain

Standards of living fell

Failed to deliver unity

Wages fell

No spirit amoungst kulaks and peasants

Communist Party

Created feeling of crisis

Party remained loyal to Stalin and he came out stronger and was viewed as heroic